Zooming in on HE 0109-3518

This image begins with a photograph of the area around the constellation of Sculptor. It then zooms in through a Digitized Sky Survey 2 image to VLT observations of HE 0108-3518, a bright quasar which is illuminating the gas in surrounding dark galaxies. These galaxies are essentially devoid of stars and would not be visible at all without the light coming from the quasar.